Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring

Reviewed by:
Eric Alt

Remember a while back when we said that the fantasy world of Harry Potter was actually pretty good? Well, forget that noise—the J.K. Rowling children’s meal should be put aside for the meatier and altogether better sword and sorcery adult serving of The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring. Put aside your obvious fear of all things geeky and remember what movies are all about: creating worlds you’ve never seen before. Director Peter Jackson has so completely realized J.R.R. Tolkien’s world that you’ll marvel at how great the movie looks, while gradually getting sucked into the story.

Buoyed by strong performances from Sir Ian McKellen as the wizard Gandalf, Elijah Wood as the kindly Hobbit Frodo (Hobbits are sort of the Grateful Dead fans of Middle Earth), Viggo Mortensen as the mysterious Aragon, and especially Christopher Lee as the evil wizard Saruman, Fellowship is violent, scary, and, at three hours, an epic undertaking—but so worth it. Even the most anti-nerd among you (we’re looking at you, Brian Urlacher) has to admit that limbs getting hacked off and bodies getting riddled with arrows is cool enough to keep you interested even when the story gets a little slow and repetitive. Just be warned: Unlike the original Star Wars, Fellowship is not a stand-alone movie. It’s abrupt cliff-hanger ending will have you cursing the long wait until the release of Two Towers in 2002.